Word: tetrapod
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...gradual affair involving multiple stages of evolutionary change. The skeletons of fish, with their slender bones arrayed all in a row, are clearly ill suited for walking and running. Moreover, the muscles of fish are designed to deliver power in all the wrong places. "Think about tucking into a tetrapod [a cow, for instance] for Sunday lunch," says Coates. "The best cuts are the thighs and shoulders, the muscle motors that drive these animals along. In a fish these motors are pathetic, tiny things. It's the back and tail muscles that propel it through the water...